Castleford  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Platform 2 with TPE and Northern services calling, December 2023 | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Castleford,City of Wakefield, England | ||||
| Coordinates | 53°43′26″N1°21′18″W / 53.724°N 1.355°W /53.724; -1.355 | ||||
| Grid reference | SE426254 | ||||
| Managed by | Northern Trains | ||||
| Transit authority | West Yorkshire Metro | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | CFD | ||||
| Fare zone | 3 | ||||
| Classification | DfT category F1 | ||||
| History | |||||
| Opened | 1871 (current station) | ||||
| Original company | York and North Midland Railway | ||||
| Pre-grouping | North Eastern Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 1 July 1840 | First station opened asCastleford | ||||
| 1871 | Station resited | ||||
| 15 September 1952 | RenamedCastleford Central | ||||
| 20 February 1969 | RenamedCastleford | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2020/21 |  0.121 million | ||||
| Interchange | 2,556 | ||||
| 2021/22 |  0.353 million | ||||
| Interchange | 8,057 | ||||
| 2022/23 | 0.410 million | ||||
| Interchange | 7,980 | ||||
| 2023/24 | 0.424 million | ||||
| Interchange | 17,489 | ||||
| 2024/25 | 0.487 million | ||||
| Interchange | 29,455 | ||||
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Castleford railway station serves the town ofCastleford, inWest Yorkshire, England. It lies on theHallam andPontefract lines, 11 miles (18 km) south-east ofLeeds.
In February 2016,West Yorkshire Metro opened the newCastleford bus station close to the railway station, featuring an integrated and staffed transport interchange. Work on the new £6 million bus station was started in October 2014.[1]
The current station was built by theNorth Eastern Railway in 1871 to replace an earlier one 440 yards (400 m) to the east built by theYork and North Midland Railway on their line from York toNormanton and opened on 1 July 1840.[2] A short time later, an east to north curve was constructed between Whitwood andMethley junctions (the latter on theNorth Midland Railway main line) to create the first through route between York andLeeds – it would remain the primary route between the two cities until 1869 and also carry services between Leeds and Hull for a number of years thanks to the machinations ofGeorge Hudson.
The town gained a second station at Cutsyke in 1860, courtesy of theLancashire and Yorkshire Railway whose line fromPontefract Monkhill to Methley Junction (and hence Leeds) had opened in 1849 and passed over the Y&NMR line near Whitwood Junction. Further construction work by both companies saw lines built toLofthouse (on the main line fromWakefield Westgate to Leeds) viaStanley (the Methley Joint line) in 1865 (1 May 1869 for passenger traffic),to Garforth via Ledston in 1878 (giving passengers the choice of no fewer than three alternative routes to Leeds) and a curve linking the Y&NM and L&Y routes in the town two years later. This latter piece of line was seldom used for much of its life (and was closed on two occasions) but now forms an important part of the line towards Knottingley.
Thus by the end of the nineteenth century, the station (by then known asCastleford Central) had an impressive range of services to choose from, with regular links to Leeds, Wakefield and on towardsManchester Victoria, through the Calder Valley as well as to York. Longer distance destinations (including Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham and London) were also available by means of a change at Normanton.
By the early 1950s, however, the local network began to decline, with the Garforth line the first to lose its passenger trains on 22 January 1951. The Methley Joint line fell victim to theBeeching Axe on 2 November 1964[3] whilst the L&Y station at Cutsyke suffered a similar fate on 7 October 1968[4] – trains from Pontefract thereafter using the aforementioned curve to reach Central, where they reversed before continuing to Leeds via Whitwood Junction (although the direct line remained in use for freight until 23 February 1981).
Another significant change was the withdrawal of services on the original Y&NMR line between York and Wakefield on 5 January 1970, leaving the station to be served by trains on thePontefract Line; although a handful of summer dated trains from Wakefield to York andScarborough continued to run until 1988. This created the current situation whereby almost all scheduled trains calling there, apart from the Manchester to York trains, approach from the west, use a single platform and have to reverse to continue their journeys. Another development was the re-routing of trains on theHallam line via the town in 1988, which reinstated the link with Wakefield and also gave passengers access to direct trains toBarnsley andSheffield.
The station had substantial buildings on both platforms until the 1970s, but these were mostly demolished (along with the footbridge); one structure survived at the northern end of the remaining platform but not in passenger use.[5] The old stationsignal box also remains, though it too is boarded up and disused (the area is now signalled from a panel box located next to the Castleford Gateslevel crossing).
A redevelopment of the station took place in 2020 with the construction of new station buildings and an enlarged car park.[6] In November 2021, work began to restore the second platform. A new footbridge with lifts has been built to enable step-free access.[7] The new footbridge was installed in October 2022 and was opened with the December 2023 timetable change.
Although Castleford was built originally as a through station, regular passenger services towardsYork were discontinued between 5 January 1970 and December 2023. All Northern Trains services calling at the station reverse here, arriving and departing from the former northbound platform 1. TransPennine Express operates through services, using platforms 1 and 2. Platform 2 had previously been brought back into temporary use during the Leeds First project in 2002;Trans-Pennine services between York andHuddersfield were diverted to avoid engineering work in Leeds, routed viaChurch Fenton, Castleford andWakefield Kirkgate. Platform 2 has subsequently been restored to permanent use and rebuilt with a new footbridge to enable step-free access, in order to accommodate extra services as part of theTranspennine Route Upgrade project.
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The station is unstaffed, though the Metro travel centre within the nearby bus station is staffed from 08:30 each day until 16:00 on weekdays and 14:30 on Saturdays (closed Sundays);[8] this sells a full range of rail tickets. A self-service ticket machine is provided for use outside of these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. A waiting room is available on the platform, along with a digital information screen and timetable poster board; automated train announcements also offer running information for passengers. Step-free access is available from the car park to the platform.[9]
On Mondays to Saturdays, the following service pattern operates in trains per hour:[10]
On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Leeds, with two-hourly services to Sheffield and to Knottingley.
The service travels viaWakefield Kirkgate andNormanton instead of Leeds - the only North TransPennine service not to serve the city - and is the first direct service between Castleford and York since 1970.[12] This is the only regular service to use the newly constructed platform 2 at Castleford, as all other services usually reverse using platform 1 (though some Northern trains from the Pontefract direction can and do use platform 2, as the track and signalling arrangements now permit this).
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | Northern | |||
| Northern | Terminus | |||
| TransPennine Express North TransPennine | ||||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Pontefract | NER Castleford–Garforth line | Ledston | ||
| Pontefract | NER York and North Midland Railway | Burton Salmon | ||
| Methley South | Methley Joint Railway | Terminus | ||
